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With the 20th anniversary of three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna's death upon us, we asked a handful of special drivers -- some who knew him, some who did not -- what the late, great Brazilian meant to them.

Mercedes F1 driver and 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton: “Senna was one of the most special drivers of all time, particularly for me growing up he was the guy that I noticed most and began to follow, and naturally came to admire. The way he spoke, his approach and the way he drove, in particular, I thought was the coolest thing ever.

“Inevitably he kind of encouraged me to want to do the same. He was at his peak when I started to watch racing, but I had all his videos, and I learned about his early career. I always wanted to emulate him. I've got a long way to go, but I'm trying.”

Three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves: “It was like a mirror [all young Brazilians] were looking into. We wanted to be like that guy.”

Mercedes F1 driver and 2009 world champion Jenson Button: “I was 14 years old, still very young obviously but I was racing in Italy that weekend [when Senna died], karting, I had just started racing there so it was a massive shock. Basically the kart meeting was over as soon as we heard the news from Imola. A horrific day for everyone, but sometimes it takes something like that -- a terrible tragedy -- to really change the sport for the better, and in terms of safety for us guys, it's had a very big impact.”

Indy 500 winner and 2004 IndyCar champion Tony Kanaan: “He was an icon where I come from [in Sao Paulo], and there will never be a person like him because he cared about us. Someone could win more races and still not be Senna. In Brazil, he'll never die.”

IndyCar star Will Power: “He was a pioneer of how far you have to go as far as how fit you have to be and how hard you have to work to be a cut above. He was an exceptional guy that went to absolute extremes to win, and definitely a guy I looked up to, idolized.”

Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon: “I wasn't following Formula One continuously at that time, but I had read and heard a lot about how talented Ayrton was. It's a shame he lost his life at such a young age -- possibly while still in his prime -- because I would've loved to see what he would have gone on to accomplish.”

Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson: “The media back in that period of time was so different than today. A few magazines I'd pick-up, I could learn about him; an occasional Formula One race on TV, but it was pretty far and few between.

“I knew the name. I knew the legacy. I feel like I've been able to learn more about Senna through Max Papis, to be honest with you, and some of the open-wheel guys that I'm friends with that looked up to him and he actually mentored along the way. Max is probably the biggest one to that effect.

“So, his legacy still lives on and it's a beautiful thing to see the respect that he has worldwide. It doesn't matter the discipline of motorsports, people still respect his abilities today and it's an amazing thing. And truthfully the documentary [“Senna,” released in 2010] kind of opened-up everyone's minds, as to what he was as a man, in and out of the car. And still, I can't believe the footage they got and the story they were able to tell through that documentary.

“I wish I'd had a chance to meet him, and certainly wish I had the chance to race against him. I know a lot of drivers who wish they could have had that opportunity.”

Three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans overall winner, sports-car racing legend and ex-F1 driver Allan McNish: “Ayrton was in Formula One at the beginning [of my career]. I think it inspired a heck of a lot of young drivers from karting to sort of follow it a little bit closer. He had already progressed through the ranks but it was close enough that we could relate to it and it was someone that we could see and had read about probably in karting magazines beforehand.

“When I started racing, I was part of the Marlboro World Championship Team young-driver program along with Mika Hakkinen, J.J. Lehto, Eddie Irvine, Jean Alesi in the beginning. And we had obvious links with McLaren [in F1 through Marlboro, which was its sponsor]. And so therefore we had the opportunity to meet Ayrton and also Alain Prost, who were driving for them in '88 when they had that dominant year of 15 out of 16 victories.

“Then later on when I signed up to be a test driver, it was a little bit more of a close working relationship. But in reality, I remember testing for the first time in Estoril in Portugal, and I drove the car and thought 'yup, everything's fantastic, really enjoyed it, very fast.'

“I did a good job actually in terms of lap-time relative to Ayrton, who was in the car next door, in the other side of the garage -- but he was talking about the car in totally different ways than I ever imagined you could. And the detail he was going into with the engineers was on a significantly different level. And it made me think that, you know, if this is the level you've got to be at, then this is what you've got to put in and from that day on I realized that to be successful in motorsport you've got to be extremely focused and dedicated -- significantly more than I was at that period.

“But I think it was his natural talent that probably stood him out [from everyone else] and his ability. [He was] maybe a little bit of a flawed genius as Monaco showed when he hit the barrier [when he had a huge lead in '88], but his ability just to drag himself to a higher level -- especially in qualifying, which stood him out above the crowd -- he moved the benchmark.

“You've got someone that moves benchmarks in every era coming through. Alain moved it so much in terms of his precision and his effortlessness to make a car go fast. Ayrton in terms of the physical side of things, then Michael [Schumacher] moved it on again, Fernando [Alonso] moved it on, and now you've got Sebastian Vettel. But Ayrton still lives in the hearts of many drivers and you can see that by the fact of many of the helmet colors [used today] as well. Just look at Lewis Hamilton … ”